The story:

For the third year running, the second year aviation students from Providence College, in association with Harv’s Air Service, embarked on the cross country of a lifetime. All of the Providence students are Private Pilots who are building time towards their Commercial licences. A very long cross country (over 3000 miles or 10 times the required Commercial requirement) is a fantastic way to experience different terrain, busy airspace, high altitude airports, and the decision-making that can only come from planning flights out in the “real world”. Along the way they flew over the Grand Canyon, into some of the busiest airspace in the world, and underwent a transition of seasons from winter, to spring, and back to winter in the span of a week.

Experience was one reason for the trip. A second reason for the trip was the stops the group made at Tribal Air (New Tribes Mission) and United Indian Mission (UIM) in Arizona, and Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in California. All twelve of the flyers have some level of interest in mission aviation, and this was a good chance for them to meet the agencies and get an inside look at how they operate.

Pilots: Adam Taylor, Richard Wiebe, Ian Torrie, David Reader, Chris Carter, Christine Cerrilli, Lance Penner, Lee Giesbrecht, Ryan Unger, Ryan Bert, Daniel Loewen-Rudgers, Jon Epp

Aircraft: Cessna 172’s C-FIIK, C-GHXS, C-GDJO and Piper Cherokee 140 C-GOMI

Itinerary: